This Could NEVER happen..... could it?

Admin Age : 57 Joined : 21 Feb 2007 Posts : 743

Imagine this scenario:

You have advertised a brand new venture.. Absolute Beginners Linedance Lessons..!!...

You open the doors and by 8:00pm you have a fantastic crowd… well, numbers that is… !!

The crowd of would be dancers are made up as follows…
80% aged between 30 – 50+
of which 20% are dresses in all the gear.. hats skirts boots shirts etc etc.. its quite obvious what type of music they prefer

The other 60% are dressed casual… and looking happy… but confused.

Now… the remaining 20% are aged between 15 – 25 dressed casual but word has spread that the music is pure cool and so is the dancing… Newline maybe??.

You have the music for all tastes – but there could very well be some VERY miffed off patrons.

Question is … and not really that simple an answer… ‘Who do you cater for’.??
Do you try to create a happy medium (is there such a thing in reality).
Do you go one way – and forsake the others.
Carry on… and try and find out if the venue has ANOTHER night free… ‘cos you may wanna give one section some free admission tickets for THEIR night.

So… c’mon… what would you do??....

Yeahhhhh… it wouldn’t happen to you in a million years….. says who!!

Admin Joined : 03 Dec 2006 Posts : 410

Well I think you should be clear on what the class is offering. If it's one or the other or both then the initial advertising should say so. So often when I want to try a new class it is so hard to find out just what type of class it is supposed to be. Now I'm pretty easy going and am happy to dance to just about anything (within reason).

Shouldn't it be you the line dance instructor who decides what type of class is should be? If you can cater for all unsundry then perhaps you should put on more than one class. But whatever, in your advertising tell us is it- newline, old country, new country, mixture, suitable for beginners, only for experienced dancers, what? Please try to be clear - the number of times I've turned up to try somewhere and never gone back - but only because I didn't know what to expect.

Admin Age : 57 Joined : 21 Feb 2007 Posts : 743

Hi DG..

Maybe this Instructor thought they had advertised it right... ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS.. maybe they thought.. EVERYONE has to start somewhere irrespective of the music. This person is typical (sic) of Linedance Instructors and didnt want to involve or get carried away with any 'politics of dancing' (bless Heaven 17.. bounce

) they just wanted people who wanted to learn 'Linedancing'.
But now this person, irrespective of their honourable intentions has a room full of people with certainly two (at least) different idea's as to what constitutes Linedancing... not the steps... but the music.

How does this person go about trying to reolve the 'problem'...how would YOU resolve it!!

Admin Joined : 03 Dec 2006 Posts : 410

Hi back

What do they want to teach? Old, new, traditional, combination - what? Does the instructor have a preference? Whatever happens they ain't gonna please all of the people.

Admin Age : 57 Joined : 21 Feb 2007 Posts : 743

So... going off what you say DG... there appears to be more 'divisions' within Linedancing than just 'mainline' and 'newline'... I suppose a 'happy medium' would be playing kitsch type pop music... which would keep 'middle of the road' linedancers happy at least - or would it. You could do 'One Step Forward' and then 'The Beast' to kitsch type music... but the 'purists' wouldn't be happy would they... so divisions are based on the music not on the actual dances - well 99% of the time.

So... getting back to the point in question... what can this Instructor do about the crowd of people they have packed to the rafters ... all eager to learn Line dancing. They can adapt the teaches for any specific group...but who do they aim for...with the crowd they have staring at them with pleading eyes Rolling Eyes

????... The Instructor cant ask the would be dancers to 'hang around for a mo' [while they 'think' about it].

Admin Age : 57 Joined : 21 Feb 2007 Posts : 743

[I know which group I would aim for and try and retain.... but I'm not an Instructor]... but we would like to see YOUR qualified answers... and maybe not just from Instructors... from dancers as well [yeahhhhh... i know you'll be biased.. but what the Hell.. Cool

]